Volvo EX90 review

The cabin has a nice ambience and a cool, premium feel, even if it doesn’t feel as opulent or have the wow factor of a BMW iX. It still feels high quality and individual in its style.

Unlike in the EX30, not every major control and display is packed into the central touchscreen. The EX90 does get a large 14.5in touchscreen using a Google-based operating system but it doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting and is backed up by a digital driver display and a head-up display for a more familiar set-up. 

A handy graphic moulded into the plastic of the inside of the boot shows what items will fit and how, like pushchairs or golf clubs. A nice touch.

Mark Tisshaw

Editor

Nor does it beep and bong at you the whole time, or falsely trigger any of the active safety functions that all work a lot better and help enhance the driving experience rather than hinder it. The active cruise control system in particular is excellent, both in heavy traffic or empty motorways.

It’s still annoying to have things like the glove box release and steering wheel adjustment hidden in menus yet the major controls you need regular access to like the heater controls fall much easier to hand so you can just about forgive a complete lack of buttons. The graphics are also clear, and the driver display is also kept nice and simple with its display options so as not to overwhelm you with information. 

That said, it’s still not good enough that functions such as Apple CarPlay won’t be available at launch in a near-£100,000 car. The launch of the EX90 has been delayed by almost a year due to the complexity of getting the software right, and even that delay has not been enough to get it to a level you’d rightly expect of any new car launched in 2024, let alone one like the EX90. 

In the EX90 you can still get reasonably comfortable in even the third row of seats for short journeys, and the boot remains decent at 310 litres even with all the seats up (with the rear two seats down, the boot is 655 litres), yet that lack of storage is a let down. 

Yet despite being similar in size on the outside, the EX90 doesn’t feel as big inside as the EV9, and it lacks the clever storage of the Korean car.

The EV9 is a bit of an elephant in the room for the EX90. While the EX90 squares up quite nicely and gains two seats over premium electric SUV rivals like the iX, the EV9 also has seven seats as an electric SUV and costs from £73,275 in twin-motor form. It’s more practical and spacious inside, too, even if the EX90 has the EV9 licked on the quality feel of interior materials and overall comfort. The price gap between the pair is enormous, and no amount of computing power or clever cameras and sensors can explain away that.